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James Swinney (1793-1846)
}} Written by Kathleen Guernsey - p. 13 of High School Essays in the "Pioneer History of Davis County, Iowa", compiled and published by the Federated Women's Clubs of the County 1924-1927. In the fall of 1828, James Swinney, wife and family of five children emigrated from Monroe County, West Virginia, to Decatur County, Indiana. Here they built a log cabin and began to clear a small patch of land when one son was seized with chills, followed by a fatal attack of typhoid fever. A coffin was needed in which to place the remains, but none was to be had within miles of their home, nor could they secure lumber within a reasonable distance out of which to make one. Finally a rude coffin was made by the father, who felled a hollow tree, split the trunk into halves, and in this placed the remains of his little son. Selecting a knoll about four feet higher than the surrounding swamp he cleared away the timber, dug a grave and in this put the rudely constructed coffin. Thus the first and oldest burial ground of Decatur, Indiana was established known since as the "Swinney Graveyard". The Swinney family remained in Decatur County for twenty years where nine more children were born. In 1846 the husband and father came to Davis County, Iowa, where he entered land for himself and each of his children under twenty-one years of age, this land consisting of over one thousand acres lies just north of the Rock Island track and east of the Ottumwa road, with the exception of two tracts which lay near the present town of Moulton. On the return trip to Indiana which required two weeks of travel in a covered wagon, he contracted a cold from which he never recovered. Two years later the widowed mother came overland to Iowa with her family of small children. One son, who had come to Iowa in 1842 made the trip to Indiana to help his mother move; brought the household goods in a covered wagon, while she and the small children came in the family carriage to which was hitched one horse. My grandmother, who was the youngest of the family, tells of her remembrance of that carriage which had glass windows in the sides and back and a fringed top. Here the Swinney family have played an interesting part in the pioneer life of Davis County, Iowa. Isaac, Delaney and Irvin were teachers in the rural schools of their community. Delaney was for a number of years one of the members of the County Board of Supervisors. J. E. F. Patterson, who married Lucinda Swinney, was also a pioneer teacher, and County Surveyor for many years. Harvey, the youngest son, enlisted in Co. B 30th Iowa Infantry at the breaking out of the Civil War, was wounded during the "Battle Above the Clouds," was with Sherman's army on the march from Atlanta to the Sea and in the review of the army before the President before being mustered out of service. Five members of the family lived to celebrate their golden wedding and one their sixtieth. About the time the Swinney family immigrated to Iowa, the Sheltons, Selmans and Greenleafs, old neighbors and friends, also left Decatur County, Indiana, to seek new homes in Iowa. The part played by these families in the pioneer and present day history needs no comment. Dr. Selman was the Swinney family physician in Indiana, while Dr. Shelton, who passed away just last year, and Dr. Greenleaf, whose widow was laid to rest less than two weeks ago, were pioneer physicians in Davis County. My Grandmother attended her first school in a log school house just east of where the present building, commonly known as the Dunnville school, now stands. A little later a frame building was erected at the present location. She still has her first reader, with its old fashioned calico cover, which she put on before she began using it. How different it is from our present day readers. A small village named Dunnville consisting of blacksmith shop, store and post office stood just north of Chequest Union Baptist church. Mr. Joel McGee was the village blacksmith. Mr. Boyd, grandfather of Mr. I. O. Jenkins, was one of the storekeepers, and Harvey Swinney was postmaster. My grandmother, to whom I am indebted for much of my information, remembers well when only two houses stood in what we now know as South Ottumwa, then called Pickwick. Bloomfield being a small village at that time the family did much of their trading in Ottumwa. A trip there being quite an event. The family would be ready to start about three a.m., taking dinner and horse feed along. There being no bridge across the Des Moines River all crossed on a ferry boat. On one of these trips my grandmother saw for the first time a railroad train. The Rock Island Railroad was built soon after the close of the Civil War, and passed through the farms of three of the Swinney boys, one having to move some of his buildings in order that the company might have an unobstructed right of way. When this road was completed the town of Belknap was built where the Rock Island and Wabash tracks crossed and the village of Dunnville passed out of existence. Kathleen Guernsey SwinneyJames17931846Marriage.jpg|Marriage Bond SwinneyJames1793-1846Death.jpg|Death Recod SwinneyJames1793-1846Obit.jpg|Obituary